MAQBOOL FIDA HUSAIN (1915-2011)

Husain's Village Woman is a formative work, created at a crucial period of the artist's development. Painted in 1954, during his tenure with the Progressive Artists Group, the painting seems to teeter on the line between tradition and modernity. Its subject is drawn from observations of everyday life that is ordinary, even quaint. Her body is shaped as it would be depicted in a classical sculpture, and her dress and activity evoke the Basohli paintings Husain saw on his travels between 1948 and 1955. In its bold colors, strong calligraphic lines, and the angularity of her features, however, the painting displays a decisive departure from traditional style.